TSA will pay for damaged belongings

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it will pay an average of $110 each to 15,000 airline passengers who claim their possessions were lost, stolen or damaged when their bags were screened for bombs and weapons.

The TSA began inspecting all checked bags at the end of 2002, a security measure ordered by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The requirement created a new chain of custody for checked bags that goes from the airline to the TSA back to the airline. Previously, the airlines had sole responsibility for bags once they were checked.

Airline passengers have since been caught between the TSA and the airlines, who have failed to agree on who would compensate them for missing or damaged items.

The TSA settled 1,800 claims in the last 22 months.

Now it will pay a total of $1.5 million to another 15,000 travelers, out of 18,000 whose claims have been settled.

TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said 38 percent will be fully reimbursed, 32 percent will get half what they claimed and 12 percent will receive less than half. Three thousand people will not be reimbursed because missing items were either prohibited or didn’t belong to them in the first place.

Air Travelers Association President David Stempler said the TSA failed to anticipate the problem when it began screening checked bags.

“We had warned them about this problem when they started inspecting bags outside of the view of passengers,” he said. “We told them to be prepared but they weren’t.”

Hatfield said 51 percent of the claims were for damage and 49 percent for possessions lost or stolen.

Since late 2002, the TSA has said 24 screeners in New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Spokane and Ft. Lauderdale have been charged with stealing from checked bags.

In July, federal drug enforcement officials arrested Spokane screening supervisor Wendy Susan Swanson after she was seen on a videocamera taking medicines from checked baggage, said GlennEwing, a TSA administrator in Spokane.

A surveillance camera showed Swanson removing pills from bottles and putting them in her pockets, court documents said.

She is no longer employed with the TSA, but Ewing could not say whether Swanson was ever convicted of the charge of theft by a federal employee. “Once the matter is referred, it’s outside our control,” he said.

Ewing said he knows of no other Spokane TSA worker accused of theft.

Nationwide, the TSA said the list of lost, stolen or damaged items include watches, jewelry, suits, prescription drugs, computers, cash and underwear.